Noah's Pudding, an Ancient Recipe

Posted July 21, 2015

Have you ever made dinner using up whatever was left in the refrigerator? You might end up with a soup or a casserole or a pasta dish, and sometimes it even ends up delicious. People have been doing this since time immemorial, and one of them may have been Mrs. Noah.

Noah’s pudding, or asure, is an ancient recipe. This is supposed to be the dish that Noah and his family made in celebration when they finally got off the ark. It is made with whatever they had left after forty days afloat, so the ingredients are dried fruits and beans, grains, nuts and spices.

It should contain at least seven ingredients, and be shared with at least seven neighbors, but the more the merrier. It’s a recipe—or rather, a dish—that can be found all over the Middle East, and it’s one of those dishes that doesn’t have a single recipe. This one comes from the Ottoman Cuisine website (http://ottomancuisine.com/), a treasure trove of recipes from what was once the Ottoman Empire. (I am particularly intrigued because the characters in my upcoming book, Lady Emily's Exotic Journey, are traveling through the Ottoman Empire in 1861 and might have sampled this.)

Note that if you want to make it, a kitchen scale will make your life easier since many of the ingredients are in grams rather than cups.

What takes time is preparing all the ingredients, like soaking, washing, chopping and boiling. The rest is easy breezy. Add all the ingredients into a deep pot except for the nuts, pomegranate seeds, poppy seeds and shredded coconut. Save those for decoration. Cook on medium heat, stirring, until rice cooks well, the mixture thickens and becomes glossy. Laddle into pudding bowls. When it cools off, top up and decorate with nuts, pomegranate seeds, coconut and poppy seed, arranging them to look attractive. Serve cold. Remember: Sharing and diversity is the key to a perfect asure.